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The Midnight Planétarium is an incredible feat of engineering, design and artistic craftsmanship. Besides showing the time, this watch also accurately displays the movement of 6 planets in our solar system as they orbit the Sun.

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Each of those 6 planets are represented by a precious or semiprecious stone selected to represent that planet’s color – serpentine for Mercury, chloromelanite for Venus, turquoise for Earth, red jasper for Mars, blue agate for Jupiter and sugilite for Saturn. The two other planets in our solar system were excluded because the lengths of their orbits would make their movements on the watch imperceptible and impractical – Uranus orbits the sun in 84 Earth years and Neptune makes the trip in 164.

The watch took 396 pieces and 3 whole years of work to complete so, along with the precious stones dotting its surface, the $245,000 price tag comes as no surprise. However, one can always dream!

The watch was presented to the public in Geneva at the Salon International de la Haute Horlogeri by the Van Cleef & Arpels jewelry and perfume company in partnership with Dutch watchmaker Christiaan van der Klaauw, who has been creating watches and clocks since the 1970s.

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There is a beast with heart of cold stone
that dashes like lightning, shreds flesh from bone. //
Bewitched by this beast, I fell to my knees.
My mouth babbled madness and mumbled soft pleas. //
I stared down the ravenous, gnashing dark maw of a cute cuddly kitten with yarn in its paw